Ernesto Vela is a painter and architect working in New York City for the past 20 years. He is a Canadian of Salvadorian origin. He received a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Manitoba, Canada and a Bachelor in Architecture from Cornell University. He has studied the landscape designs of Roberto Burle-Marx in Brasil and researched Pompeii's colored fresco walls as part of a travel fellowship from Cornell University. He is a partner at the think! Architecture and Design based in Brooklyn, NY.